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First founded in 1853 by New York lawyer Paul Cornell, who named the community after the famous London park, Hyde Park was incorporated in 1861 and in 1889 the village was annexed to the City of Chicago. At the time of annexation, Hyde Park was extremely large in size, extending from 39th to 138th Streets. Today the area stretches from Lake Michigan to Cottage Grove Avenue and 47th to 59th Streets.

The 1890s was a time of great growth for Hyde Park. The construction of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Jackson Park had a profound and lasting effect not only on Hyde Park and the city, but on the entire country. The famous University of Chicago was founded in 1890 and was under construction simultaneously with the World's Columbian Exposition. The area grew, attracting additional businesses, people, and an expanding economy to the area.

The War That Forged a Nation
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James M. McPherson looks anew at the reasons America's civil war has remained a subject of intense interest for the past century and a half. Learn more

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

As a Chicago historian and a Hyde Park resident, I had to take a look at this book. In general, I am often disappointed in the Arcadia Press books. They are often little more than a bad picture book. But this is possibly one of the best in the Chicago series.Hyde Park is a community that has just celebrated 150 years (in 2003). For more than 100 of those years it has been part of Chicago.Hyde Park is the home of the University of Chicago, the Museum of Science and Industry and the site of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition (recent building in the area uncovered the footings for the original Ferris Wheel). As such, the community has had a long and rich history.I do not know who Leslie Hudson is (no biography in the book), but she obviously did her homework and research. The post card images have been captioned with detailed information. The book itself is divided into thematic sections with the cards sorted into a historical order.I was a little disappointed in the sparseness of the Sans Souci material (on of Chicago's first amusement parks) as there are many wonderful post cards from there. There were also some other nuggets I was sorry to see missing (i.e. a hotel that suffered after it was recommended by the ...), but overall I was very pleased by the content and the thoroughness of much of the research.A fine book for fans of Chicago history as well as fans of Hyde Park.